hand painted thrift store purse

My niece Ruby had her 4th birthday recently, and I wanted to get her a purse and fill it with tape and sticky notes because she likes to stick things on the wall. Like a good aunt, I thought I’d send her everything she needs to continue doing that, all in a sparkling new purse.

I wanted to sew a bag, but I’m not into sewing right now and me and my sewing machine aren’t really speaking to each other, so I found a cute, small pleather purse for $3 at the thrift store and well you can probably guess the rest of this story.

In my head, painting a purse was going to be so much easier that it really was (everything usually is), and well it wasn’t horrible, just time consuming. There are a few videos on how to do this, but I didn’t see any where they paint the whole thing. No problem, I love a good challenge.

First I sanded it lightly (I’ve read that acetone works too) to roughen up the surface a bit. Then I gessoed it (not sure if this was necessary or not). THEN, 4 coats of read paint (craft acrylic paint) were needed to get rid of all those stubborn little M’s. Baby wipes come in handy to wipe away any paint in areas you don’t want it, like on the piping. The fun part was next: dots and a big flower with the letter R. Finally a coat of FolkArt Extreme Glitter paint in red. It added the perfect amount of sparkle and acted as a good glossy sealant for the bag.

Not sure how long this paint job will last, only time with a 4 year old can tell, but Ruby sure will look cute with her new handbag. And, I can’t wait to see what she does to the wall in her bedroom.